It’s Good for Them

How Bad are these Boys, anyway?

The Indiana Pacers had to undertake their half of this “NBA Finals preview” Tuesday without their coach, Isiah Thomas, and one of their young stars, Ron Artest, both serving suspensions, from different altercations.

Thomas was a member of the original Bad Boys, Detroit’s rough, tough teams of the 1980s, when men were men and there was no such thing as a flagrant foul. Now Thomas’ Pacers, who are a little rambunctious themselves, are likened to those Detroit teams.

Dallas Coach Don Nelson came right out and called them “dirty.” Before Tuesday’s game, the Lakers’ Phil Jackson chimed in, noting that Thomas would “coach like his personality” and would “find a way to win a game, by hook or by crook.”

Of course, this also serves as a tacit appeal to the referees to watch the rough stuff, so the Pacers can count on hearing it in one form or another for the rest of their careers.

“We’re nowhere near the Bad Boys,” Pacer President Donnie Walsh said. “Believe me, we’re not even comparable. Right now, I think we’re an offensive team [they’re No. 3] much more than being a defensive team [they’re No. 10].

“You really can’t compare that team with the team we have right now. I mean, we’re not at that stage of our development. We’ve got a lot of young players that play hard. ... But defensively, we’re in and out and we’re not as physical as I think we should be.”

Even Jackson, whose Bulls endured annual donnybrooks with the Pistons, concedes there’s a difference between the Pacers and the Bad Boys.

“The flagrant foul came into effect, basically, [because of] the Pistons of the ‘80s,” Jackson said. “The thing about the Pistons, if there was a foul called, [Bill] Laimbeer and [Rick] Mahorn would come over to make sure that you didn’t get a three-point play by knocking

“And there was nothing the referees could do about it because the foul had already been called. They’d make sure the three-point play didn’t ensue and also that you lost any desire or thirst to come to the hoop.”

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Jackson says despite the Lakers’ recent success, the team is still looking to acquire help.

“We haven’t felt we’re over the hump,” he said. “We still think we can be a better basketball club with personnel. We’re very green in the backcourt or we’re very old, one or the other. We’re trying to develop Kareem Rush as quickly as possible, trying to get a little more speed. Those are the things we would be very interested in doing.”

The Pacers are trying to trade them power forward Austin Croshere, the Crossroads alumnus who is buried on their depth chart. The Lakers are more likely to sign Horace Grant, who knows the system and comes much cheaper.

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Not that Jackson likes to needle his old boss, Bull General Manager Jerry Krause, but asked about the Pacer resurgence, Jackson noted: “The thing that really kicked them off though is that Chicago did them a big favor, sending them Artest, Brad Miller and Ron Mercer. And suddenly from a deep team that had some young players on the bench, they now had three veterans who could come in and play with this team and make them real deep.”